Bo'ness football stadium boundary wall improvements look set to kick off

The Newtown Park Association (NPA) launched a fund-raising campaign a few years ago with the aim of carrying out much-needed repairs to the boundary wall at the stadium.

At the time a sign was erected outside Newtown Park stating “Not just another brick in the wall - sorry Pink Floyd - we need to repair the whole wall (£20,000)”.

The local community subsequently supported the cause via a JustGiving page and £1270 was raised.

However, there were problems which prevented the work from going ahead.

An NPA spokesperson said: “Firstly the sum donated, although generous, was insufficient for the NPA to instruct any work, and then the Covid pandemic created further issues as material and labour costs sky-rocketed.

“Additionally, contractors, those still in business, have since been playing ‘catch-up’ and have focused on their previous commitments, their regular customers and the

less difficult jobs.

“However, we can now see a way forward, with contractors now being interested, especially with the proposal to do the work in sections rather than the whole wall, which seems to be a more appealing way to do the work.

“Discussions are now ongoing with contractors as how best to proceed; there are insufficient funds to do the whole wall so the plan is to do the work in sections and contractors are to provide a schedule and costings.

“The benefit of this is it allows work to start and allows NPA further time to source more funding. It will obviously take longer to complete repairs but at least it’s a step in the right direction.”

The NPA have been able to boost the funds available for the wall repairs as a result of the “Santa at Newtown Park” event last Christmas, with the net proceeds from that event of £2600 being added to the £1200 raised through the JustGiving initiative.

“We’d like to thank wholeheartedly the people of Bo’ness for their contributions so far and we look forward to finally being able to make some progress with this project.”

People can visit the boundary wall campaign’s Just Giving page for more information.